"Stars Fell On Alabama" is the name of the first block of the Sentimental Journey quilt, and I made it last night. I finally realized that my cream fabric has a fine stripe and is directional, so I should have paid attention to that while cutting if I wanted all the stripes to face in the same direction. Luckily I never cut triangles until I really need them, I just cut the squares I need and write down if they are Half-Square-Triangles or Quarter-Square-Triangles. So I only had to recut a few of the rectangle pieces, and I had enough fabric for that. Well, duh, I should have noticed that earlier!

I cut all the pieces for the Sentimental Journey quilt on Sunday. I hope I cut everything correctly. I tried not to lose track but with twelve different blocks that wasn't easy (although I checked every single piece I cut on a list).

There are not many preterm baby quilts left to be donated to the hospitals right now, and of course several hospitals will need another delivery in the near future. So before cutting my new fabrics I sat down and made two more tops. Usually I use one feature fabric and add fabrics from my stash as I see fit. This weekend I took my two feature fabrics and mixed and matched a little. Now the two quilts make a nice set that can be used for twins, if necessary. I had to order more batting but I am confident I will be able to quilt them before our retreat in three weeks. I hope to have seven finished preterm baby quilts to donate by then.

If anyone reading this would like to make a quilt for this charity, we would love your help. These quilts are really small, so they don't take a lot of time to make. You can find more information on Yahoo or Facebook (all in German, but English-speaking people are available to answer questions). There is no obligation to sew anything, you are welcome to join and just look around. Or if you don't want to join but help anyway, please feel free to email me, I would be happy to help you with whatever information you might need. These quilts are donated to prematurely born babies that weigh less than 3.3 pounds. They go to 16 hospitals in Germany and Austria. Almost 2.500 quilts have been donated since 2003 so far, and we hope that we can continue to give a quilt to every preterm baby that is born in one of these hospitals.

On Monday I not only received the fabrics but also got a surprise in the mail from Sabine. I found this pretty Valentine's Day card in my mailbox when I came to the office in the morning. Thank you, Sabine.

After they kept them for almost four weeks at the customs office I finally received my fabrics on Monday. The customs declaration was issued at the Frankfurt airport after all, I wonder why they didn't do it there in the first place. I had to pay 8,00 € which is not very cost efficient if you consider that they had to send the package back and forth between Frankfurt and Berlin three times.

Anyway, they are finally here and I already washed them. Since the snow is slowly starting to melt and the sun is actually trying to get through the haze, I am confident I will cut the fabrics for the Sentimental Journey quilt this weekend.

The purple fabrics are for my hexagon project. I have known for awhile that I don't have a big enough selection of purple fabrics although my Zick-Zack-Zicken tried to help me out with that. Now I have 11 new fabrics, and I can finally continue with my hexagons.

Every year for at least fifteen years I have been very susceptible to the winter blues. The lack of light makes me tired and lacking in drive, I just can't get around to doing something. In January we didn't see the sun for two whole weeks but were drowning in snow instead, and I got hit by a serious bout of depression. I hate snow, I admit that, and I wouldn't mind 70 F and sunshine all year long. I can only accept snow around Christmas in the countryside, e.g. in the Czech Republic where I took the picture. Berlin is covered in ankle-deep slush right now, and I didn't want to post a picture of its dirty, icy streets - nothing I will ever want to remember.

Anyway, my sewing mojo also left in January, especially since my fabrics still haven't arrived. I have no idea what they are doing with them at the customs office, they have had them for almost four weeks now. At first I tried to find a project I wanted to work on, but I gave up in the end of January. I finally decided I cannot force myself to enjoy sewing, and since I didn't enjoy it at all it was better to stop altogether and wait until I feel better.